I decided to bite the bullet and buy some REAL monitors after years of cobbling together monitor systems from various home stereo components. As I was going to be passing thru St. Louis today, I called ahead to the Guitar Center, where a knowledgable salesman named Scott agreed to arrange a shootout of powered monitors with 8" woofers. I took several CDs of familiar material and a sound pressure level meter and spent about an hour evaluating offerings from KRK, Behringer, Mackie, M-Audio, JBL and Yamaha. I had a budget of $700. My shootout winner (and newest residents of my mixing console) are a pair of Yamaha HS80M's. To my ears, they had the flattest response and clear, un-hyped bass. The (minor) downside--when no music is playing thru them they have a noticeable hum. I remixed a few things this evening and am pleased with how well the mixes translate to other systems, boom boxes etc.